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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET by EDWARD HERBERT

First Line: INNUMERABLE BEAUTIES, THOU WHITE HAIRE
Last Line: THOU SEEMEST, WREATH'D BY SOME IMMORTAL HAND.
Subject(s): LOVE - LOSS OF;

INNUMERABLE beauties, thou white hair
Spread forth like to a region of the air,
Curl'd like a sea, and like ethereal fire
Dost from thy vital principles aspire
To be the highest element of fair;
From thy proud heights thou so command'st desire,
That when it would presume, it grows despair,
And from itself a vengeance doth require;
While absolute in that thy brave command,
Knitting each hair into an awful frown
Like to an host of lightnings, thou dost stand
To ruin all that fall not prostrate down,
While to the humble like a beamy crown
Thou seemest, wreath'd by some immortal hand.



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